"The books or the music in which we
thought the beauty was located will betray us if we trust to
them; it was not in them, it only came through them, and what
came through them was longing. These thingsthe beauty, the
memory of our own pastare good images of what we really
desire; but if they are mistaken for the thing itself they turn
into dumb idols, breaking the hearts of their worshipers. For
they are not the thing itself; they are only the scent of a
flower we have not found, the echo of a tune we have not heard,
news from a country we have never yet visited." - C.S. Lewis

I am busy from early in the morning until late at night. I am
rarely alone. Where can I find a time and place to contemplate in
silence?
Silence is something that comes from your heart, not from
outside. Silence doesnt mean not talking and not doing
things; it means that you are not disturbed inside. If youre
truly silent, then no matter what situation you find yourself in
you can enjoy the silence. There are moments when you think youre
silent and all around is silent, but talking is going on all the
time inside your head. Thats not silence. The practice is
how to find silence in all the activities you do.
- Thich Nhat Hanh, from "The Heart of the Matter"

The Man of Zen

"His manners are not studiedly
courteous, nor is he brusque, but he is simply at ease. He gives
you his whole attention, so long as you give him your whole
attention. If your attention starts wandering, though, he has
work to do and promptly leaves. But so long as you are wanting to
talk to him, he is there for you and for nobody else. He sits
down, and he really sits, unworried about whether he ought to be
somewhere else. He is able to sit in one place with complete
serenity. If you have half an idea that you ought to be worrying
about something out in the garden, or that you ought to be
cooking dinner, or that you ought to be down in your office, you
cannot sit where you are. You are not really there." -
Alan Watts

A couple of nights ago, I had a dream; I was a Chinese man frying
fish for my grandson. When I woke up, I felt weird to be a
Chinese grandfather! But then, I asked myself who was that
looking at me (at the Chinese grandfather)!?

Well, it was nothing, no-thing, neither
an object nor any subject! But looking forever and untouched by
the I (the Chinese)! Looking at happy or unhappy Afshin, Looking
at the successful or poor, or joyful Afshin, looking at Afshin's
world!

Am I that was looking at Afshin, am I
that is looking now and will be looking at Afshin and Afshins!
This Afshin (I) changes but what is looking at I and the world
can not be changed.

Is that It?! What a feeling, so flat,
so ordinary and so simple. It made me laugh; laugh to all
the bothers and worries about the Path towards
the Truth.

With all Respects,

Love

Afshin

Dear Afshin,

That is true.....what you are is looking at what you seem to be.
That is, 'I,' Awareness is seeing or knowing the body and mind
called 'Afshin.'

Yes, we laugh when we see that we have mixed up our identity with
a cluster of passing thoughts, images and sensations. It is such
a simple mistake with such enormous ramifications!

However, there is more to it than that:

The discovery that we are Awareness still leaves the question as
to what the Chinese grandfather, the happy and unhappy Afshins,
the successful and the poor, in fact the whole world of objects
and others, really is.

If we make a deep exploration of all these
apparent objects of Awareness, we discover that they don't just
appear to Awareness, they appear in Awareness.

And in turn, if we go deeper we find that Awareness is not just
their witness but also their substance. They don't just appear in
Awareness, they appear as Awareness.

Then we can go deeper still into our experience and see that
there is in fact nothing other than Awareness, taking the
apparent shapes of the mind, body and world but always simply
being itself.

The discovery you have made is called wisdom. The further
discovery that I attempt to describe, in which the witnessing 'I'
is also discovered to be intimately and utterly one with all
appearances, is called love.

In other words the simple, flat and ordinary discovery of what we
are, this colourless, open, empty Presence, is later discovered
to be a fullness which is the substance of all things, and is
known as love, peace, happiness, understanding, freedom and
beauty.